Thursday, July 31, 2008

Ancient Greek Computer Set Dates For Olympics

The world is preparing to turn its eyes to Beijing for the Summer Olympics, a fortnight of sporting competition that pits the best athletes against one another. The Games start on the somewhat ominous date 8/8/08 -- but that's something the ancient Greeks could've predicted as far back as the end of the 2nd century, B.C., using a mechanical brass calculator to predict solar and lunar eclipses and likely set the dates for the Olympic games.

The calculator, dubbed the Antikythera Mechanism, was discovered in 1901 at the site of a shipwreck off a Greek Island with the same name. The breakthrough in determining the mechanism's true purpose, however, has come only recently with advances in modern technology.

Using three-dimension, X-ray technology, the researchers working with the device were recently able to decode tiny inscriptions buried inside the fragmented brass pieces, Reuters reports. The Antikythera Mechanism is comprised of bronze gearwheels, dials and inscriptions.

The connection between the lunar and solar eclipses was an important part of setting the date of the ancient Olympics. The beginning of the ancient games marked the beginning of what the Greeks called "The Olympiad," a four-year time span that began on the full moon closest to the summer solstice.

As researches began to unravel the astronomical function of the Antikythera Mechanism, x-ray technology dropped another clue in their lap. Amongst the inscriptions on the ancient computer were the names "Nemea" and "Olympia" -- both of which were sites that hosted the ancient Olympics.

Like a well thrown shot-put, the pieces began to fall into place for researchers.

"It really surprised us to discover that it also showed the four-year cycle of ancient Greek games, including the Olympic Games," Tony Freeth, a researcher at the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project who worked on the study, told Reuters.

The Antikythera Mechanism wasn't done surprising the people studying it either. When it was originally discovered, at the site of a shipwreck in 1901, it was found with other items from the Eastern Mediterranean. This led researches to believe that ancient brass computer originated in that region.

But as researches employed the technology that allowed them to read the inscriptions on the device, they found that the names of the months used were of Corinthian origin -- indicating the Mechanism found its origins on the other side of the Greek world, most likely Corfu or Sicily, in the Northwest part of the country.

The technology used in the Antikythera Mechanism was so advanced for its time that it wouldn't be seen again in the Western world until the invention of clocks in medieval cathedrals.

VIA
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Netflix Will Stream TV, Movies To LG Blu-Ray Player

LG Electronics on Thursday said it would sell this fall a high-definition Blu-ray disc player that can stream to a TV more than 12,000 movies and TV episodes from Netflix.

The LG BD300 player will rely on a wired broadband connection and a queue-based user interface to display on a TV a variety of content selected by the Netflix subscriber. Once selected, movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds, the companies said.

Netflix members will be able to use the player's remote control to browse and make selections on their TV screens, as well as read synopses and rate movies. They will also have the option of fast-forwarding and rewinding the video stream.

"The BD300 is another LG industry first and provides consumers with an advanced high-def disc player with unparalleled flexibility and networked access for services such as Netflix," Teddy Hwang, president of LG Electronics USA, said in a statement.

The LG-Netflix deal is not exclusive, so LG could add similar services from Netflix rivals in the future. Netflix has said that its long-term goal is to get Sony, Panasonic, and LG to integrate Netflix services into their digital TVs.

The partnership was expected. LG and Netflix said at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January that they would provide a device for streaming content from the Web to the TV in the second half of the year. Pricing was not disclosed.

While the BD 300 supports high-definition content, Netflix does not offer HD content for streaming. It does offer HD movies via its by-mail service.

Netflix has offered subscribers the option of streaming movies to their PCs at no additional cost. The company is hoping to stay ahead of the curve as the Internet matures as a distribution mechanism. Netflix rival Blockbuster is also expanding its digital offerings.

LG is not the only Netflix partner for streaming content. The DVD rental firm this month unveiled a partnership in which it would stream movies through Microsoft's Internet-based Xbox Live service.

Under the deal, people with Xbox 360 videogame consoles can download Netflix movies at no additional cost and watch them on TVs. The service, which is expected to launch in the fall, will only be available to subscribers of Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold service.

VIA
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels:

Scrabble on Facebook Crashes, and EA Blames Hackers

Facebook's online Scrabble application came up blank Wednesday as an apparent hacker attack pulled down the application. Game maker Electronic Arts, partnering with Hasbro, the publisher of Scrabble, released a statement that read in part, ""We're working with our partners to resolve this issue and have Scrabble back online and ready to play as soon as possible."








The shutdown of the game came directly after Facebook took Scrabble knockoff Scrabulous offline amid threats of a lawsuit from Hasbro. Scrabulous is a product of an independent software company based in India. The Indian company continues to offer its Scrabble clone outside the U.S. and Canada.

'Tech Problems'

When attempting to load the Scrabble beta application in Facebook, users received the following screen message:

"We'll be back up shortly ...

"We're working on some tech problems and Scrabble will be ready to play as soon as possible! We appreciate all the great feedback we've received over the past week and as a result we're making changes to Scrabble for its official launch in mid-August, including a streamlined app with the option to turn off animations for faster game play and full keyboard functionality for those who prefer this way to play."

Observers are speculating about whether disgruntled Scrabulous users hacked the system or bugs in the software caused the outage -- or a combination of both. While EA claims outside hackers were at fault, some observers believe that may be a cover to save face. Scrabble beta was still out of commission as of Wednesday afternoon.

Evidently former Scrabulous users were angry about the loss of their game. It's estimated the Scrabulous application had nearly half a million U.S. users before Facebook pulled the plug and substituted the licensed Scrabble beta.

Rebelling Against Scrabble

MORE
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Saturday, July 26, 2008

ATI Sapphire HD 4870 Video Card Review

AMD/ATI has released two new high-end graphics chips recently, Radeon HD 4870 and Radeon HD 4850, known by the codenames RV770 XT and RV770 PRO, respectively. As you can guess by the numbers, HD 4870 provides a higher performance compared to HD 4850 and currently is the fastest GPU provided by AMD/ATI – until Radeon HD 4870 X2, a video card featuring two HD 4870, is launched. In this review we will benchmark HD 4870 from Sapphire and compare it to its main competitors from nVidia. Is this video card a good buy? Check it out.

Sapphire HD 4870 follows AMD/ATI’s reference model both on its physical aspect as in specifications: the graphics chip runs at 750 MHz with its memory being accessed at 900 MHz (real clock) thru a 256-bit memory interface. Just for a quick comparison, HD 4850 runs at 625 MHz and has its memory running at 993 MHz.

But what is really new on HD 4870 is the use of the new GDDR5 memory, which transfers four data per clock cycle instead of two like it happens on DDR thru GDDR3 technologies. Because of that the memories achieve a performance as if they were working at 3.6 GHz, pumping data transfer rate up to 115.2 GB/s (these numbers for HD 4850 are 1,986 MHz and 63.5 GB/s, respectively).

Both new chips are based on DirectX 10.1 (Shader 4.1) architecture, where all processing units inside the graphics chip is generic, being able to process any kind of vector (pixel shader, vertex shader, etc). What is really impressive about these two new chips is that they both have 800 processing units inside the chip. We will provide a short table comparing the specs from this new video card with the specs from its main competitors. Before that, let’s take an overall look on Sapphire HD 4870.

Sapphire HD 4870
click to enlarge
Figure 1: Sapphire HD 4870.

Sapphire HD 4870
click to enlarge
Figure 2: Sapphire HD 4870.

Sapphire HD 4870
click to enlarge
Figure 3: Sapphire HD 4870.

This video card requires the installation of two 6-pin auxiliary power connectors, see on Figure 4. The product comes with two adaptors for you to convert standard peripheral power plugs into a 6-pin power plug if your power supply doesn’t provide them. At least this time AMD decided to stick with the 6-pin connector instead of using the 8-pin one, which isn’t found on the majority of power supplies.

Sapphire HD 4870
click to enlarge
Figure 4: Auxiliary power connectors.

VIA : link

Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Google's Ad Rates Push Profit Toward $17.07 a Share

 

Google Inc.'s ability to raise the price of Internet financial-services advertising by an average 19 percent may help the most widely used search engine overcome a U.S. economic slump and lift profit to $17.07 a share this year.

Customers most constrained by the slowdown, including mortgage companies, are paying the biggest increases, according to Efficient Frontier Inc., an Internet ad agency that tracks industrywide statistics. Rates for home-loan companies in June were 35 percent higher than at the end of last year. Retail, the biggest category of Web advertising, saw prices rise 9.3 percent.

Google is able to charge the higher rates because it can guarantee that shoppers most likely to make a purchase will see the ad, thanks to its software, said Citigroup Inc. analyst Mark Mahaney in San Francisco. The pricing power may help Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt, 53, push the shares up by 25 percent, according to a Bloomberg survey of 23 analysts.

``I don't think this is a bulletproof business model, but it has got better armor than other advertising and marketing vehicles,'' Mahaney said. He is ranked third among Internet analysts by Institutional Investor magazine and named Google his favorite stock for long-term investors last month. The shares have fallen as much as 40 percent this year.

Second-Quarter Results

Higher ad prices may be behind a jump in Google's second- quarter profit. The Mountain View, California-based company will today report a gain of 38 percent to $1.28 billion, or $3.99 a share, according to the Bloomberg analyst survey. Net sales are likely to climb 42 percent to $3.87 billion. The company may earn $17.07 a share this year, up 28 percent from 2007.

This is, nevertheless, the first substantial economic slowdown that Google has faced in its four years as a public company. Clicks on ads rose 20 percent in the first quarter, following 52 percent growth a year earlier, Google said in April. The decline in growth is at least partly attributable to the nation's business malaise, Mahaney said.

``No company can be completely immune when the economic pressures are wide-ranging and far-reaching,'' said Mark May, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York. He still recommends buying Google shares, which he doesn't own. (full Story Link)

Posted by at No comments:

What to Install After a Fresh XP Install

his post is more of a note to me so I know what to do when I need to install XP again, as I have just un-installed Vista after a months use and gone back to XP.

The honest truth is Vista is a very poor OS, even Microsoft admits that Vista is broken, Microsoft own vice president Mike Nash couldn't get things done in Vista.

I had a lot of problems with Vista, most of my games didn't work with Vista, I have a £100 printer that's as good as a brick because it's not compatible and copying files to a USB device took forever. I haven't got the best PC in the world but its still a pretty good PC and got a Windows Experience Index Score of 4.1, but when I was running Vista it was very slow and painful to use.

I did like the look of Vista and some of the new features, like the Sidebar the fast search results and the start menu, so I found away to get these features in XP without losing performance and stability.

How to give XP some of the features Vista has.

Themes.

Install royale-noir first then Royale-Remixed, when "Display Properties" window opens after installing Royale-Remixed choose the "Media Center Edition 2006" theme then open "Appearance tab" and choose "Royale" then under "Color Scheme" choose "Royale Noir".

The Royale-Noir theme uses the same resources as the default XP theme so it won't bog down the system, this is the best theme to use if you would like to use a dark UI. The Royale-Noir theme was actually developed by the Microsoft design team and that's why you don't need to use the Uxtheme patch to use this, you can read more about the theme here.

Programs.

To add additional gadgets to the Vista Sidebar you need to add them manually, download the gadget that you want from Windows Live and use a program like WinRAR/7-Zip to extract the contents to a folder, then name the folder to what ever the gadget is called then put .Gadget to the end of the name e.g. BBCRadio.Gadget

Then all you need to do is place that folder to C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets



If you are using SP3 and don't mind playing about with the system files, you can replace the Uxtheme.dll file with this patch and use this theme to give you a better Vista look.



Free programs for a complete OS after XP is installed.

These are the programs I install, you may not need to install all of them so check out the program first to see if its a program you would use.

Not free but worth the money.

  • Nero An all in one burning and coveting program, plus many other features.

  • PowerISO


If there is a program you still need that isn't listed have a look at my list of free software, there maybe something there that might help.

FOR more Goto: LINK
Posted by at 23 comments:

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Advertising Slogans

Computing

  • A nerds dream
    • FHM
  • What Do You Want the Internet to Be
  • Enabling Transformation
  • The Way It's Meant To Be Played
  • Powered by Intellect. Driven by Values
  • On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984.
  • Buy Opera today... And make this banner go away
  • e-business solutions
  • on demand
  • Yours Is Here
  • In a world full of Windows, we're handing out rocks
  • [It's] so easy to use, no wonder it's number one
  • So powerful, it's kind of ridiculous
  • sound.vision.soul
  • Where do you want to go today?
  • Your Potential. Our Passion. Microsoft.
  • Your Source of Digital Inspiration.
    • Multimedia InfoCenter
  • Prestigious IT jobs
    • Jobs Consulting
  • The Difference is Dell
  • Simplicity At Work, Better Buy Adobe
  • Where Information Lives
  • We Are Building A New Technology Company
  • Buy it. Sell it. Love it.
  • The World's Online Market Place
  • Experience, Results
  • If you have a reason, we have the job
  • Your Transformation Partner
  • Performance Defined,Results Delivered
  • Releasing Your Potential
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels:

Monday, July 21, 2008

Apple cuts price of MacBook Air by $500

Apple Inc. has quietly reduced the price of its most expensive notebook by $500, cutting the cost of the upper-end MacBook Air to $2,598. The MacBook Air, which Apple launched in January to some fanfare, has been sold in two configurations since then: with a traditional 80GB magnetic platter hard drive and a 1.6-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, or with a 64GB solid-state drive and a 1.8-GHz CPU. Solid-state drives (SSD) are built from flash memory and, unlike hard drives, have no moving parts.

The MacBook Air with the solid-state drive is more expensive than the one with the hard drive, but several Apple-specific Web sites, including AppleInsider, noticed that Apple had dropped the price of the SSD-equipped model by 16% on Thursday, July 3. Prior to the price cut, the solid-state MacBook Air sold for $3,098. The less expensive hard-drive-equipped MacBook Air retained its $1,799 price tag, according to the Apple online store. The price cut came from changes on two of the MacBook Air options. Selecting the SSD now adds $599 to the price of the notebook, compared to $999 earlier. Also lowered was the 1.8-GHz processor option, from $300 extra to $200.

Source: Computerworld

Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels:

Batman’s ‘Dark Knight’ Sets Weekend Record

LOS ANGELES — Fevered fans pushed “The Dark Knight,” the sixth in Warner Brothers’ series of “Batman” movies, to record three-day ticket sales of $155.3 million over the weekend, shoring up what so far had been a wobbly year at the movie box office.

By Warner’s estimate, the film narrowly eclipsed opening-weekend ticket sales last year of $151.1 million for Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man 3,” the previous record holder.

Including a solid $27.6 million for the musical “Mamma Mia!” from Universal, the weekend’s top 12 films took in about $249.6 million, according to the box office consultant Media By Numbers. That lifted the domestic box office total for the year so far to $5.36 billion.

That is still down about 1 percent from last year, and the number of theatergoers is down 3.7 percent. But the weekend performance gave studios and theater owners alike reason to take heart, as it proved that even a familiar franchise like the “Batman” series can still bring surprises.

“It just took on a life of its own,” said Dan Fellman, Warner’s president for theatrical distribution. “You never expect anything like this.”

Unusual excitement began to build weeks ago around “The Dark Knight,” much of it fed by anticipation of a performance as the villainous Joker by Heath Ledger, the Australian actor who died in January.

Theaters began adding midnight and early morning screenings of the film, as fans scooped up advance tickets from the online ticket services Fandango.com and Movietickets.com. At sellout shows around the country, audiences — including more than a few viewers who came made up to resemble Mr. Ledger’s evil clown character — pushed Friday ticket sales to an estimated $66.4 million, including an extraordinary $18.5 million from the midnight showings.

That the film’s opening took on an event status that previous “Batman” movies never quite achieved apparently owed something to its strong presence in the outsized Imax format.

The film —directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale — was filmed partly using Imax cameras, and opened on nearly 100 Imax screens in the United States. That meant a boost at the box office because Imax tickets cost an average of $12.80, about 75 percent more than the overall average ticket price of $7.08, as estimated by Media By Numbers.

Imax screenings contributed $6.2 million to the “Dark Knight” box office, beating its previous record, for “Spider-Man 3,” by more than 30 percent, said Greg Foster, the president of filmed entertainment for Imax Corp.

To date, the summer box office had been solid, but not spectacular, with ticket for the season up slightly at $2.76 billion, thanks to price inflation, and attendance down about 2 percent. Films like “Iron Man” from Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios, and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” from Paramount and LucasFilm, topped the $300 million mark.

But “Hancock,” an off-center superhero movie from Sony Pictures and the star Will Smith, came up short of last year’s “Transformers” over the July Fourth holiday, and several pictures, including “Meet Dave” from Eddie Murphy and 20th Century Fox fell flat.

This weekend, Fox suffered another embarrassment with “Space Chimps,” an animated film that took in just $7.4 million and placed seventh at the box office.

A strong opening like that of “The Dark Knight” tends to drive future ticket sales, as viewers find their appetites piqued. In this case, a future beneficiary may be “Terminator Salvation,” a Warner action film scheduled to open next May: The movie’s trailer was attached to “The Dark Knight,” putting it in front of a particularly eager audience.

The box office take for “Mamma Mia!,” which starred Meryl Streep, was almost identical to that on the equivalent weekend last year by “Hairspray,” a New Line Cinema musical that took in $27.5 million in first-weekend sales and went on to make $118.9 million.

Other top-performing films over the weekend included “Hancock,” with $14 million (for a total of $191.5 million); “Journey to the Center of the Earth” from Warner, with $11.9 million (a total of $43.1)million; “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” from Universal, with $10 million ($56.4 million total); and “Wall-E” from the Walt Disney Company with $9.8 million ($182.5 million total).

For all the record-setting, the weekend’s performance also underscored how much harder studios have been working for their hits in recent years.

In 1989, “Batman,” with a reported budget of $35 million, opened to about $40.5 million and went on to take in more than $251 million at the domestic box office.

“The Dark Knight,” by contrast, has been reported to cost over $180 million. Given the pattern of contemporary blockbusters, the film appears unlikely to match the performance of its predecessor, whose domestic box office sales would be on the order of $450 million if adjusted to reflect ticket price inflation.

Today’s event films tend to open bigger, and disappear more quickly, than those of the past. Thus, “Spider-Man 3” took in about 45 percent of its $336.5 million in total sales on its opening weekend, and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” took in 37 percent of its $309.4 million on the first weekend last year.

“Batman,” by contrast, relied on the opening weekend for just 16 percent of sales.

Mr. Fellman said he believed “The Dark Knight” would continue to outpace “Spider-Man 3” in coming days, thanks to a midsummer date when school is out. “Spider-Man 3” was released in early May and had to fight harder for midweek business.

By the week’s end, Mr. Fellman said, “The Dark Knight” is likely to take in more than the $205 million in total domestic ticket sales for its immediate predecessor, “Batman Begins,” in 2005.

Source : NYTIMES

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Friday, July 18, 2008

What to Install After a Fresh XP Install

his post is more of a note to me so I know what to do when I need to install XP again, as I have just un-installed Vista after a months use and gone back to XP.

The honest truth is Vista is a very poor OS, even Microsoft admits that Vista is broken, Microsoft own vice president Mike Nash couldn't get things done in Vista.

I had a lot of problems with Vista, most of my games didn't work with Vista, I have a £100 printer that's as good as a brick because it's not compatible and copying files to a USB device took forever. I haven't got the best PC in the world but its still a pretty good PC and got a Windows Experience Index Score of 4.1, but when I was running Vista it was very slow and painful to use.

I did like the look of Vista and some of the new features, like the Sidebar the fast search results and the start menu, so I found away to get these features in XP without losing performance and stability.

How to give XP some of the features Vista has.

Themes.

Install royale-noir first then Royale-Remixed, when "Display Properties" window opens after installing Royale-Remixed choose the "Media Center Edition 2006" theme then open "Appearance tab" and choose "Royale" then under "Color Scheme" choose "Royale Noir".

The Royale-Noir theme uses the same resources as the default XP theme so it won't bog down the system, this is the best theme to use if you would like to use a dark UI. The Royale-Noir theme was actually developed by the Microsoft design team and that's why you don't need to use the Uxtheme patch to use this, you can read more about the theme here.

Programs.

To add additional gadgets to the Vista Sidebar you need to add them manually, download the gadget that you want from Windows Live and use a program like WinRAR/7-Zip to extract the contents to a folder, then name the folder to what ever the gadget is called then put .Gadget to the end of the name e.g. BBCRadio.Gadget

Then all you need to do is place that folder to C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets



If you are using SP3 and don't mind playing about with the system files, you can replace the Uxtheme.dll file with this patch and use this theme to give you a better Vista look.



Free programs for a complete OS after XP is installed.

These are the programs I install, you may not need to install all of them so check out the program first to see if its a program you would use.



Not free but worth the money.

  • Nero An all in one burning and coveting program, plus many other features.

  • PowerISO


If there is a program you still need that isn't listed have a look at my list of free software, there maybe something there that might help.

Setting Up and Installing XP


First thing you should do before doing a fresh XP install is to download all the software that is needed and to make sure that you have all of your drivers. A great program that will save you a lot of time and headaches is DriverMax, it will backup all of the drivers that are installed on your PC for easy reinstalling.
Once you have backed up all of your drivers just check that you have got all the software that you will be installing and make sure they are saved on a partition that is use for storage or a CD/DVD.
Now we need to back up your program settings, copy this folder. C:\Documents and Settings\"user name"\Application Data to a storage partition or a CD/DVD. Make sure that you can see hidden files or you won’t be able to do this.

for moreeee
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Apple On an iCloud

A look how Apple store your data online
here was a time when, if you said you were under a cloud, all your acquaintances suddenly discovered they had pressing business elsewhere and, come December, you were dead short of Christmas cards.

But with computers, when we talk of clouds we mean somewhere in cyberspace where you can store information or reach for it over the global communications network.

Apple has built a cloud of its own, called MobileMe, an online service that uses mobile phone networks and wi-fi, either hot spots or domestic networks as well as landline broadband, to push emails, calendar events and other information between iPhones, iPod touches, Macs and PCs.

MobileMe is a subscription service that replaces and revolutionises the .Mac (pronounced dot-Mac) system I have used all over the world for years. It costs $A119 a year ($179 for a five-user family pack), which gives you access to everything plus 20GB of storage on Apple's servers for your movies, photos, disparaging emails from Great Aunt Maude and other essential stuff. A 60-day free trial is available.

On an iPhone or iPod touch you need iPhone firmware 2.0 and iTunes 7.7 (downloadable from apple.com, where you can also sign up for MobileMe). If you are already a dot-Mac subscriber, you will have been signed up automatically. You can keep your @.mac.com email address but you also get the same username at me.com.

MobileMe is a further example not only of Apple's ability to make difficult things easy and spread the doctrine of constant connectedness, but also of how the Mac is invading the PC environment.

Macs are now selling at a rate three times faster than PCs, according to Ron Johnson, Apple's head of global retail sales, and they are moving steadily into the business arena.

Axel Springer AG, a huge German publishing company with 150 newspapers in 30 countries and 10,000 employees, is currently replacing its 12,000 PCs with 12,000 Macs; towers, iMacs and MacBooks. It makes Springer Apple's second-largest customer, behind Google.

While you cannot run Mac or iPhone applications on a PC and MobileMe will not talk to Windows Mobile devices, you can use MobileMe to synchronise data on a Mac, an iPhone or an iPod touch with a PC.

The data is stored in your corner of the MobileMe cloud, aka Apple's servers on what is essentially still the old iDisk arrangement, but under MobileMe your iDisk is more accessible; drag and drop on the desktop.

If you make changes, they are pushed to every device you have given access to your MobileMe account. Or you may log in from any internet connected computer, using the new me.com website.

MobileMe will talk to Outlook on Windows and, of course, to MacOS X's Mail, iCal and Address Book. If you make an entry in iCal on, say, your iPhone, and if your other devices are connected via wi-fi, a mobile phone network, or a broadband line, the iCal calendars on every device you have listed (and Outlook if you also use a PC) are automatically synchronised. Similarly, emails show up on all the devices you have linked to the cloud.

Via me.com, you can get to Web 2.0 style applications to share photographs and other files and expect many more will be created as Macintosh and iPhone developers get going.

This has led the socially mobile and surreptitious to worry whether, should they (in the joy of the moment!) carelessly use their iPhone to take pictures of their girlfriend in a bikini at Noosa, would their wife instantly see the incriminating images pushed to the domestic iMac? Even good technology has traps.

The other worry for Australians might be the cost of pushing all that data around a mobile network. But, to be optimistic, greater traffic should mean lower prices and better plans.

The concept of synchronising devices and sharing information is far from new, of course.

Big companies use Microsoft's Exchange, which works well with expert management, but for ordinary folk is like learning Icelandic while knitting bed socks out of barbed wire.

Apple boss Steve Jobs has called MobileMe "Exchange for the rest of us", which is a fair analogy, but in my view underplays the seamless user friendliness we should expect from Apple's latest and, in many ways, most significant move in thinking differently and changing the world.

Apple is now harnessing the burgeoning wireless networks to seriously challenge some entrenched technology - Microsoft and Google for just two - by showing there is an easier, more efficient way.

Apple has an advantage because MobileMe can do it by wireless as well as online. But, before the end of the year, in the US, if not elsewhere, Google will respond to the iPhone challenge with Android. Progress.

MACFILE

Is the growing popularity of the Mac likely to make it more vulnerable to the evil and, these days probably criminal, purveyors of viruses, internet robots, electronic Trojan horses and other kinds of malware?

A couple of weeks ago a virus watch outfit called Intego announced that it had found two Mac Trojans likely to do damage. It said that one, "PokerGame", pretended to be a free card game but could steal your data, passwords and get control of your computer to propagate more malware. The other malware interfered with AppleScript.

If you remember your Greek mythology you will know that the Trojan takes its name from the wooden horse used by the Greeks to infiltrate and lay waste to Troy. In short, Trojans look neat but have nasty things inside. The Trojans' mistake was to think the horse was a gift.

So, while we can say that no Macintosh viruses are at work on the internet, Trojans are not viruses and are there to trap unwary users. They don't do damage if you don't open them and let the nasties out. There are hundreds of them in the PC world, many purporting to be free videos on online porn sites.

While no one discounts the dangers to Macs, the feeling is that provided people use common sense and trash stuff they don't recognise, the risk is pretty low.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Monday, July 14, 2008

9 Basic Tips to Succeed in Affiliate Marketing

You should have heard about affiliate marketing, it is one of the low cost ways to make money on the Internet. Anyone can earn income through affiliate marketing regardless of their experience in internet marketing, as long as they have the passion and patience to learn and work on affiliate marketing.
This article will provide you 9 important basic tips for succeeding in affiliate marketing.
1. Select a specific niche. Make sure that there are affiliates already making money in the niche as this indicate that the niche is profitable. Then join affiliate programs that are offering products or services appeal to the niche market. It is suggested not to join too many affiliate programs at the beginning to avoid losing focus.
2. Do research and investigation on the affiliate programs before joining them. You should only join rewarding and reliable affiliate programs. The products must be targeted to your niche market and in good quality so that you are able to promote and sell them with less refund rate.
3. You can promote affiliate products without a website. But, it is highly recommended that you build a niche website with interesting content focuses on promoting your affiliate products.
4. Create a budget for your marketing campaigns. Know clearly how much you want to spend on promoting your website and affiliate programs.
5. Traffic and conversion are the keys to generate affiliate commission. You will need to spend most of your time to learn and work on these two aspects. So, be prepared to work hard.
6. Your potential buyers often need supporting information before buying an item. You may write reviews about your affiliate products and 'how to' articles with your affiliate links included in the content. This is one of the effective ways to direct your visitors to your merchant's site and make a purchase.
7. For long-term profit in affiliate marketing, you have to build a list. Some of the methods you can apply to grow a list are offer free gift, free newsletters, free e-courses and participating in a give away event. When you have a opt-in email list, you can regularly contact your target prospects and recommend your affiliate products to them.
8. Your credibility is important. You should often send helpful and interesting information to your opt-in list subscribers. Provide your real name and an email address on your website so that the potential prospects know there is a real person behind the website and contact you anytime when they have question.
9. Most affiliate programs allow you to recruit affiliates under you (sub-affiliates). You will earn more commission if you grow your own network of sub-affiliates. If you have found a few hard working sub-affiliates, you can expect to share a steady commission from the affiliate sales generated by them.

Source : make money
Posted by at 4 comments:
Labels:

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Apple Launches iPhone v2.0 OS

The launch of the iPhone 3G has everyone excited, but what about those few who decided to stick with the original? Fear not, for v2.0 (OS) is now available for download from Apple.

However, as great as it may be that a few of the 3G’s goodies will now be incorporated into your first-gen iPhone, Apple has stated that should you install the v2.0 OS into your existing handset without backing up your data (for which you can use iTunes) you’ll lose all of it.

The update procedure is fairly simple. Connect the handset to the PC, open up your iTunes application, and simply click on the update button that appears in the iPhone menu in iTunes. Do remember to back up your data first. The final step is to just sit back and wait.

According to reports, a few users have had some issues with the update, but hopefully those will be rectified by Apple ASAP.

You can download the update file here.

Source: Tech2

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Friday, July 11, 2008

Nokia N5320 GSM/WCDMA Cellular Phone


Nokia N5320 GSM/WCDMA Cellular Phone w/ BT FCC Approved -- Another phone from Nokia has been approved by the FCC. This time, its the Nokia N5320, a GSM/WCDMA Cellular Phone. The 3G N5320 was described in Nokia's press release as sporting dynamic design and offers dedicated media and N-Gage gaming keys, up to 24 hours of playback endurance and up to 8GB of internal storage capacity and Nokia's Say Play technology facilitating voice controlled playlists. Nokia describes the N5320 as sporting the most fresh, stylish designs on the market. Nokia's N5320 cell phones will become available in the third quarter of 2008 and will retail for around €220 and €160 respectively. via: press[Link to story]

Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels:

Ten Free Mac OS X Programs that Make the PC to Mac Switch a Breeze

With more and more attorneys adopting Macs throughout their offices every day and the business world raving about the cost effectiveness of Mac OS X, today Macs are an accepted and feasible alternative to Windows in the legal community. Having recently made the switch to a Mac myself, I’ve put together a list of the top ten free Max OS X programs that made switching from a PC to a Mac a breeze.

1. Quicksilver
Quicksilver is a program launcher that uses simple commands to rapidly bring up any program, file, folder, or website. Quicksilver learns what files and programs are most often accessed and adapts so that those items are pulled up almost instantaneously when the user starts typing the name of the item in the Quicksilver interface.

For example, in screenshot below, I pulled up the Quicksilver interface with a single keystroke and then by typing in “ex” brought up Excel. Using the tab key I was able to bring up specific commands such as the option to open a specific excel document, move a document to another folder, or email a specific file. Quicksilver is very intuitive and allows users to execute specific commands so quickly that using the built-in OS X dock to open a program seems slow by comparison.

Picture 8

2. Anxiety

Anxiety brings the iCal task list to your desktop. It provides easy access to your to-do list so that tasks can be added or marked as complete without opening your full calendar. Anxiety stays in sync with iCal and disappears when not in use.

2t_anx

3. Caffeine

OS X has a great power saving feature built-in: after a short period of inactivity the screen automatically dims. Caffeine allows you to turn this feature on and off with a single click so that presentations can be run without interruption. It also prevents your Mac from going to sleep or starting the screensaver.

Picture 13

4. Growl

Growl provides unobtrusive notification messages from various programs that run on OS X, including Adium, Firefox, and iTunes. They simply pop up as semi-transparent notifications on the top right corner of your screen and then disappear.
growlicon

5. Adium

Adium is by far the best instant messaging program I have ever used. You can seamlessly send messages to your friends using various protocols including AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, and MSN Messenger. Adium also supports tabbed conversations so you can keep all your conversations in a single window.

adium

6. Smultron

While there are a number of free text editors available for OS X, my favorite is Smultron. Smultron allows you to have multiple documents open at the same time in an easy-to-use tabbed interface. Another popular free text editor for OS X is TextWrangler while users who want a word processing application with features closer to what Word or Pages offers, Bean is worth checking out.
Picture 9

7. Skim

Skim is a PDF reader that is cut above Preview, the default viewer in OS X, because of Skim’s enhanced markup capabilities. You can easily add notes, highlight portions the document, and quickly jump from one marked-up section to the next through a convenient side panel. Skim also allows you to create presentations and then run the presentations using the Apple Remote.
Picture 12

8. VLC
VLC is media player that supports most modern digital video formats including the DVD format and various streaming protocols. Installing VLC will save you the trouble of having to find a compatible player every time you need to play a new media format.
Picture 10

9. iStat Menu

One of my favorite features in Vista is the pop-up calendar that is displayed when you click on the time in the taskbar. iStat Menu brings that feature to OS X. It also allows you to display multiple time zones, open your iCal calendar, and add additional menus that display everything from the temperature of your Mac to the remaining space on your hard drives.

Picture 11

10. Rachota

Rachota allows users to track the time spent on various projects. Rachota can also summarize how much time was spent on each project and provide helpful time-maximizing tips.

Picture 16

Posted by at 7 comments:
Labels:

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Game - Lost Odyssey

Lost Odyssey is the latest JRPG from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Mistwalker Studios.

Gamers who have played through pretty much any Final Fantasy game will feel right at home the moment they take control of Kaim, the main character in Lost Odyssey. The game is huge—it comes on 4 DVDs, which guarantees many days of gameplay.
After a truly spectacular opening sequence, the journey begins with Kaim Argonar, a thousand year old immortal, surviving the deadly impact of a meteor crash on a battlefield. There are three other immortals and they have all lost their memories. They are all searching for their identities and their memories, which they unlock through the game in the form of dreams, revealing the key to thwarting a sinister plot threatening two worlds.
Kaim is the strong silent type, the mysterious hero with a soulful scowl and a deep sea of unfathomable secrets. But he doesn’t struggle alone; Lost Odyssey does not neglect the rest of its fascinating cast. Lady pirate Seth, benevolent queen Ming, the simple and noble prince Tolten and several others provide companionship. All their lives intersect at one point or another. The storyline is serious, but comic moments are plentiful and most of it involves the inadvertent spy Jansen. He is a flamboyant ladies’ man and one of Kaim’s very first companions, managing to be both annoying and charming.
The main story follows a predictable path but it is really beautiful and is about self discovery and the timelessness of the relationships we develop. The memories of our hero and his companions are presented in simple but effective sequences and are recounted via stylized text, accompanied by static images and subtle music. They make for a good amount of reading, but if you skip through these memories, you will miss the game’s most touching and heartfelt moments. In fact, these moments make you stop everything and consider how beautiful and cruel life can be at the same time.
Virtually everywhere you go, someone can provide a morsel of helpful information. Talking to everyone you see, from boring old innkeepers to hyperactive children is very useful—you never know whose knowledge will lead you to a special item or prompt one of Kaim’s memory-inducing dreams. The story is just that much richer when you get the perspective of the people in it.
Some quests are more elaborate than others; for example, one puzzle will have you paying your respects to 16 statues scattered all across a mountain village, while another will require you to play tag with a young girl.One of the weak aspects of the game is combat. It is typical JRPG—turn based and random. You can attack, use an item, cast a spell, defend, activate a skill and even attempt to flee if the situation gets too hot to handle. Weapons are pretty boring as none hold any special properties whatsoever; they have an attack rating and nothing else. Spells and most enemies are based on the usual Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water elements which counter each other.
Combat animations take an astonishingly long time, slowing everything down. Enemies and combat animations are the prettiest part of the game, and are in fact outstanding examples of next-generation beauty. For every round of battle, you must choose what you want each character to do—fight, cast a spell, defend, etc. What you can’t decide directly, however, is when your characters will perform their actions during each turn. Each member of your party has a speed rating that serves as a baseline for when they will perform their maneuvers, but many factors (such as spells and status effects) can go into changing that speed. When you’re choosing what action to perform, you won’t be able to see the turn order of the upcoming round—only once the battle sequence begins will you see who is attacking via a row of icons on the bottom-left of the screen.
In addition, each monster has his own speed rating that has to be factored in—pay attention to when a monster attacks, as a given monster tends to strike at the same time during every round of battle. There are a number of ways for you to engage in battle. Most of the time, battles will occur randomly while you are in field and dungeon areas. You can save your game by standing near glowing orange save points. Save often, even in towns, as challenging areas tend to sneak up on you.
A couple of additions to the combat and leveling system add to the thrill. There is an interesting ring building system. Defeating enemies and searching through the huge game world will earn you components which you can combine to form “rings”, which offer hand-to-hand combat bonuses. The first few rings created can be upgraded with other components or combined with other rings to turn them into more exotic and powerful ones. Rings can be switched anytime during combat without losing a turn. This allows you to use a water-based ring against a fire-based monster, etc.
Equipping a ring also adds an interactive element to combat. As your character runs towards an enemy to attack, a targeting ring appears on screen. This is the ‘Aim Ring system’ in action. Holding the left trigger creates a second Aim ring which begins on the edges of the screen and quickly shrinks in. Release the trigger when the Aim ring overlaps the target ring. Do it perfectly and you will dish out bonus damage; miss and you actually hear the character curse on screen.
Your party consists of a mixture of humans and immortals. A human acquires skills and spells as they level up. Immortals are quite different—they learn skills and spells from the humans in your party and from the accessories they use. At the end of combat you earn your standard XP and also ‘Skill’ points. You don’t use skill points as you might in other RPGs. Instead, SPs progress you towards learning a specific skill you have linked to a human party member or from an accessory which you are wearing. This also creates an interesting dynamic between mortals and immortals. When an immortal falls in battle, he or she is automatically resurrected after a few turns. But immortals can learn certain skills only from humans who must be fighting alongside.
Powered by the awesome Unreal 3 Engine, Lost Odyssey boasts stunning visual fidelity and rendering quality. The technology pushes high definition visual designs to a higher level and brings out the smallest details in the largest battles. Story sequences are penned by the award-winning Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu, artwork is handled by famed Japanese comic artist Takehiko Inoue, and renowned composer Nobuo Uematsu creates a soulful yet contemporary soundtrack.
Lost Odyssey sets a new benchmark for the RPG genre with a combination of true-to-life cinematics and a heart-wrenching story of an immortal man and his companions. The massive worlds, memorable characters and epic story play together as an intense blockbuster film.If you have an Xbox 360 and you are an RPG fan, I would definitely suggest you go out and get Lost Odyssey. It is not just a great game but also a heart-touching experience that you’ll remember for a very long time.

Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels:

DirectX 11 Coming Soon!!!

Technorati Tags: ,
 

Microsoft will start talking about DirectX 11 in less than two weeks. Sources have confirmed that Microsoft game technology conference, previously known as Meltdown and now renamed to Gamefest 2008, will be the place where Microsoft plans to officially announce DirectX 11. This conference takes place on the 22 and 23 July in Seattle, Washington and it will set you back $550 if you register online. You can find some more details about the conference here. The big feature of DirectX 11 is Tessellation/Displacement while we also heard that Multithreaded Rendering and Compute Shaders are part of it. DirectX 11 also brings Shader model 5.0 but we don’t know many details about it. It looks like DirectX 11 will stick to rasterization as there is no any mentioning of Ray tracing support. Nvidia will also talk about DirectX 11 at its Nvision event / conference in late August 2008.

Posted by at 3 comments:
Labels:

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Will Smith’s Hancock HD Trailer

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

The Dynamic Architecture

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, July 7, 2008

Useful Tips for Daily Use

JUMPING TO THE URL AND SERACH FIELD:
To quickly jump to the URL field and type a website address in Firefox, use the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl)+(L). also you can use (Ctrl)+(K) to jump to the search field next to it.


ZOOMING WITH THE KEYBOARD IN OPERA:
In Opera, you can zoom in with the keyboard using the (Ctrl)+(+) and (Ctrl)+(-) keys in 10 percent steps. With (Ctrl)+(0), you can switch back to the 100 percent view.


CALCULATING WITH BINARY DIGITs:
Change the view of the calculator to "View > Scientific" to show a professional mode and convert binary numbers to hexadecimal values.


PREVENTING AUTO START:
Keeps the (Shift) key pressed when inserting a CD or DVD and when closing the optical Drive-this stop them from running automatically.


REACTIVATING HIBERNATION MODE:
If the hibernation mode refuses to function, you can reactivate it by typing the command “powercfg/hibernate on” in a command prompt windows.


DISPLAYING THE MENU BAR IN VISTA:
Click “Organize” in the action bar and select “layout > menu bar” to always display the classic menu bar in windows Explorer under Vista.


CONTROLLING WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER:
Use (Ctrl)+(Shift)+(F) of (Ctrl)+(Shift)+(B) for fast forwarding and rewinding.


SELECTING SENTENCE IN WORD:
To select a sentence in Word, keep the (Ctrl) key pressed and click at any place within the sentence.


AUTO WRITE PROTECTION IN EXCEL:
When you open an Excel table using a shortcut with the "/r (Path)\(filename)" parameter added to it. it automatically become write-protected.


TEXT DISPLAY IN OPENOFFICE:
With (Ctrl)+(Shift)+(J), you can use the entire image area in OpenOffice for viewing text, or switch back to the smaller default view.


READING OUT INFO ON BLANK DISC WITH NERO:
Nero can display information about the manufacturer of blank CDs/DVDs. when you open "Recorder > Medium information", keep (Shift) pressed and click "Update".


DEFINING EDGE SHARPNESS IN PaintShopPro:
In Paint Shop Pro, define the "Edge sharpness" with "Selection" in the style pallet for the soft-focus contour efect when copying from picture sections.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)